Ubuntu and HP Pavillion Slimline s7421c

[Carl Parrish]

Someone needs to hit HP over the head with a clue stick.
Okay first I contacted them to see how to go about getting media so I
could run
XP as a guest OS in vmware after I install Linux. I was told that theres
is no way.
I asked if I borrowed a friends XP media would I be able to install it
that way using my license
I was told no the license has to match the media . (I guess this is
mostly MS fault - but still).

So that idea met a dead end. I decided to just go ahead with a dual
boot. Its not like I'm *really* going to use MS anyways.
(for the last 10 years or so I've either purchased computers at whitebox
suppliers or build them myself). I happen to have some Ubuntu Version
5.10 disc around and thought I could install that run the upgrade and
get my wife up and running till her Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop discs
arrive in the mail. (all her data is backed up on my network drives so
its not really hard to move her from distro to distro). The install
seemed to go okay but on reboot the HP Recovery screen came up. (no way
around it) I tried rebooting. Grub came up but the only OS option that
worked was the one for Windows. Then you're back at the HP Recovery
window. HP's recovery wipes ubuntu off the system.

If this is what most people have to go though to install Linux no wonder
people still think its hard to install. I'm going to try dual boot one
more time with FC 5 if that doesn't work I'm just going to wipe the hard
disk clean then install. (maybe I should use partition magic).

Its been a long time since I felt that Linux was a 2nd class citizen in
the computer world but the past week I've had several walls come up.
Hopefully my experience with my video card will go much better.